On getting mauled in one round

[Jubilee]

Our group was pursuing a shadowwalker/assassiny type who was laying waste to our camped forces. My arcane hierophant had a couple of spells that gave her a 140ish flight speed, so she was -well- ahead of the party, trying to nab the jerk before he got back to the enemy camp..

unfortunately, he hid in the shadows and sneak attacked me like 5 times in the surprise round with thrown daggers and some other insane bonuses and I took 180 of my 75 hp and went home.

I was only saved by divine intervention.

Sometimes.. being the fastest most mobile person in the group is a Bad Idea.

 

[MortalPlague]

A player in a 3.5 campaign I was running had just lost his character. He decided he was going to roll up a dwarf samurai with as many hit points and as much armor as he could find. Well, the first combat he saw was when they caught up to Lord MacGregor, the mad lord of Aemon's Bluff who had vanished into the wild after being possessed by a demon.

The dwarf charged, and missed on his attack. Lord MacGregor flew into a rage, and critically hit the poor dwarf. With a greataxe. Some high rolls on damage later, no more dwarf.

The ranger also lost his wolf before the party decided to retreat and regroup.

 

[roguerouge]

Lizardfolk King of Age of Worms. 'Nuff said.

 

[Vaslov]

My rogue moved around a target to get his precious flank. Little did he realize the statue trap next to that square. Trap triggered, crit him and stunned him. As the next turn came around the bad news hit. The trap was in the initiative order and had interupted him which meant it got to go again before him. Another crit and the rogue was done. Full health to near dead in the blink of an eye. Missed the first two death saves as well. Luckily the group healer made it to me before I failed another dead save.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

In the Final Fantasy 1 game we played a few years ago, I had my most glorious moment AND my first ever death. I was a Black Mage focused on battlefield control and "change" in general -- transmutations, using energy sub. to make all my attack spells acid, etc...

We had just gotten our airship and were flying over the ocean to meet Bahamut, when we see the campaign's lead antagonist -- A (probably gestalted with Fighter) war Cleric Garland. Riding a Five-headed aspect of Tiamat. As it neared, we prepared for battle, me turning into a cave troll and gaining dragon wings. I ordered to disperse, weary of a breath weapon, and actually flew off past the ship, over the water. The rest of the group didn't disperse much at all, even the Red Mage who could also fly.

Round 1 -- Garland uses Blasphemy and leaves everyone on the deck of the ship practically helpless...except for me, since I was too far away to be affected. My turn!

Having thus far been fairly cowardly and putting my own safety first, I was tempted to flee. But I didn't want them to all get killed with a breath attack, so I decided to take a chance. I pounced upon Garland, hitting with all 5 attacks and rend, leaving him barely alive and improved grabbing him right off the dragon! The DM then allowed me to release him as a free action, which Garland didn't resist, directly over the vast blue. He was still alive, but plummeting to the ocean in full plate so...good enough.

I was hoping the aspect of tiamat would dive to save him. Instead, she decided to full attack me: 5 bites and a tail, with a str we later learned that was in the 30s. My d4 HD action hero was deep into the negatives after the first 3 alone, and fell lifeless back to earth.

Fortunately, the Red Mage got back up and dove down to save me, using the only Fenix Down we had found the entire game. Three rounds later, healing and taking turns flying each other back up to the ship, I was back in the fight as a winged Roper, str draining and ultimately killing the witch with an acidic splatter!

No moment can ever top that.

[sblock]Not until months later, I remembered I had a panic button to use Dimension Door as a swift action. I could have used that to not only evade sure death, but also teleport directly south and get an aoo claw on Garland as he fell, probably killing him. Instead, a Kraken waiting in the water carried him away. D'oh![/sblock]

 

[chriton227]

In a 3.5 game I was GMing, the low level party (3rd or 4th) was fighting some orc bandits in the woods. The apparent leader of the orcs was hanging back taking pot-shots with a mighty composite longbow. The party rogue decided he could take an archer by himself and started moving in that direction, stopping out in the open. That is when the leader dropped his bow, raged, drew his greataxe while charging, and landed a crit on the poor rogue. 3d12 + tripled raging 2 handed strength bonus later, the rogue was history.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

The poor Dwarven Fighter in my Shackled City AP campaign went from full hit points to negative hit points while in Jzadirune. He failed his listen checks and stepped into a room only to get hit with 2 readied actions from creatures waiting either side of the door.

1 Sneak Attack with a dagger and a critical hit with a rapier and he was on the ground bleeding to death. I kind of felt bad for him as he didn't really do anything wrong, apart from failing his listen check. He did manage to live to fight another day though.

Olaf the Stout

 

[pawsplay]

My PCs came upon a group of ogres guarding an underground complex. After some brief discussion, they decided to lead with a fireball from a wand and rush. "I mean, they're just ogres." Little did they realize that only two of the ogres were just ogres; the other two were ogre barbarians from the MM, and because they did not stop to ask about the ogres equipment or to detect magic, they were subsequently surprised by the ogres' resistance. Even so, the party's barbarian decided to reserve her rage for a tougher encounter. In round one, one of the ogre barbarians went into a rage, attacked with Power Attack for -5/+10, and critted, killing her PC instantly. If she had used her rage ability, she would have survived.

Later comment: "I am striking the phrase 'They're just ogres,' from my working vocabulary."

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I remember seeing the partys Ranger die after one charge by a Thunderbeast in our Shackled City campaign.

I don't count the TPK that happened in 1 round when our DM accidenally used the stats for the wrong Giant in our Oriental Adventures campaign. One single attack, cleave, greater cleave, greater cleave, one man standing, second attack, all dead.

But I do count the "encounter" where the Bard accidentally triggered a trap that killed the replacement character that I got since my Fighter had been kidnapped (magic jared). The character died without ever getting to roll initiative. At least I got a fortitude save I could fail gloriously.

 

[Filcher]

My first 4E game I fey stepped around a cube and ended up directly beneath a carrion crawler that was clinging to the ceiling. He dragged me home for dinner while the rest of the party died to the cube.